Showing posts with label Joel 4:2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joel 4:2. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

BIN EXCLUSIVE: Meet Mike Pence’s Orthodox, Jewish, Israeli Cousins - Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz - BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS


BIN EXCLUSIVE: Meet Mike Pence’s Orthodox, Jewish, Israeli Cousins


“I will gather all nations and will bring them down into the valley of Yehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there for My people and for My heritage Yisrael whom they have scattered among the nations and divided My land.” Joel 4:2 (The Israel Bible™)
Michael Pence, the Vice President-elect, is a long-time ardent supporter of Israel, but it turns out that his connection to the Holy Land goes deeper than even he knows: the Evangelical Christian from Indiana has Orthodox Jewish relatives, one of whom lives in the Golan Heights and is eager to meet his cousin.
The genealogical connection centers around Tamsen (Tammy) Socher, a Jewish grandmother living in West Los Angeles. She spent most of her life in the San Fernando Valley, but when she moved to Ohio, eight years ago, she felt a need to maintain a connection to her family and became interested in genealogy. Her search quickly led her to a relative, Richard Pence, an amateur genealogist. She was impressed by his work.

Mike Pence and Merrill Socher-Axelrod (Courtesy Merrill Socher-Axelrod)
Mike Pence and Merrill Socher-Axelrod (Courtesy Merrill Socher-Axelrod)

“Some people just want to fill in the blanks, but Richard really worked hard at getting it right,” Tammy said in an interview with Breaking Israel News. Tammy realized that Pence was not a common name. “It doesn’t really come from England. It was one of those made-up Ellis Island names, so we are all connected. I haven’t met a ‘Pence’ yet who wasn’t a relative.”
Most of her family was from Indiana, so Tammy asked Richard if Michael Pence, then an Indiana congressman, was a relative. Richard, who is now deceased, answered that the Michael Pence was indeed her fourth cousin on her father’s side. Tammy tried to contact Pence at the time but was unsuccessful.
The Vice president-elect is aware of this family connection. When he was on the campaign trail, Tammy’s cousin Merrill Socher-Axelrod, an Israeli citizen living in Michigan, went to a campaign event. Michael Pence showed up late but Merrill hurried to be photographed with her famous relative. When she stood next to him, she told him quickly, “You have Orthodox Jewish cousins in Israel. Here is some family lineage. Your cousins are my cousins.”
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She handed him a letter from Tammy describing the family connection. It noted that several of his relatives are religious Jews, and at least one lives in Israel. Included in the information was a personal invitation from Tammy’s son, Jesse, inviting his vice-presidential cousin to come visit him in his Golan home the next time Pence is in Israel.
Jesse Socher told Breaking Israel News that his invitation was sincere.

Jesse Socher and his son, in an IDF uniform. (Courtesy Jesse Socher)
Jesse Socher and his son, in an IDF uniform. (Courtesy Jesse Socher)

“I know he probably won’t take me up on it, but I support him and he seems like a nice guy,” Socher said. “If he comes to Israel, I would love to get together.”
Jesse is realistic about the significance of this family connection. “When it comes to making political decisions, I doubt that it makes a difference to him that he has family in the Golan. But it does say a lot about how interconnected Israel and America are.”
Pence has visited Israel several times and has referred to Israel as “America’s most cherished ally.” In 2014, he headed a high-level business delegation from his state on a visit to Israel sponsored by Christians United for Israel.
In 2016, he signed into law a bill which would ban Indiana from having any commercial dealings with companies that boycotts Israel. Pence has also said that he opposes a Palestinian state. Quoted as saying he was “a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order,” his support for Israel is more based on ideology than politics.
In an address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in 2009, Pence assured the audience, “Let me say emphatically, like the overwhelming majority of my constituents, my Christian faith compels me to cherish the State of Israel.”

Thursday, December 5, 2013

US Supports Israel at the UN - BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

US Supports Israel at the UN




“I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there for My people and for My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and divided My land.” (Joel 4:2)
UN Security Council
The United Nations Security Council (Photo: Bernd Untiedt/Wikimedia Commons)
The UN Human Rights Council has long been abused to discredit Israel.  Now, Israel may be able to exert some influence on the international body.
On Monday, members of the Western Europe and Others Group in Geneva gave Israel a seat and a voice in the group, a move which will allow Israel to  “shape policy and determine leadership posts” on the Human Rights Council, according to US Ambassador Samantha Power.
“For far too long Israel has been unfairly excluded from regional bodies at the United Nations,” Power said in a statement. “This long-overdue decision brings Geneva in line with the decision to admit Israel into WEOG in New York in 2000, which continues to pay dividends more than a decade later.”
US Secretary of State John Kerry called the move “overdue,” just hours before he was scheduled to return to the Middle East to move peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians along.
“It goes without saying that at a time when the scourge of global anti-Semitism is on the rise, it is more important than ever for Israel to have a strong voice that can be heard everywhere,” he said in a statement. “This is a particularly welcome development as we work to end anti-Israel bias in the UN system.”
Kerry promised the US would “continue to support efforts to normalize Israel’s treatment across the UN system.”
The various regional bodies, of which the WEOG is one, act in an advisory capacity to the Human Rights Council, although they have no formal standing.  The US is a member of the council, while Israel still is not.
According to Haaretz, senior diplomats from the US, Britain, Australia, Canada, Germany and France sent a letter to the UN’s institutions in Geneva and to the ambassador of Spain, who heads the WEOG, asking that Israel be included in the regional body.
“We are strongly supportive of Israel’s membership at the earliest opportunity. We request that you kindly include this issue on the agenda of the next WEOG meeting in Geneva, to be held as soon as possible,” the letter, sent last month, read.
The group ultimately agreed to accept Israel in exchange for Israel’s return to the council to face its Universal Periodic Human Rights Review process.  Israel had left the council a year and a half ago to protest its alleged anti-Israel bias.
The American Jewish Committee’s executive director, David Harris, said the decision “ends the shameful anomaly whereby Israel was the only UN member state not fully integrated in the world body’s regional grouping system.”
Although this is an important move, drawing praise from Israel supporters across the board, it is likely not sufficient to sway the council’s anti-Israel attitude.
“At the council, Islamic states continue to hold the balance of power by controlling the African and Asian regional groups — which, taken together, form the Council majority. WEOG is vastly outnumbered at the council, and preposterous anti-Israel resolutions, and investigations and reports, will continue to flow like untreated water from a sewer,” human rights lawyer and pro-Israel activist Anne Bayefsky told the Times of Israel recently.
Still, this step in the right direction elicited much appreciation for those responsible for helping it along.  Israel’s UN Mission said on Twitter that “after decades of discrimination, a historical wrong has been corrected.
“Israel’s voice will finally be heard loud & clear in WEOG in Geneva.  Special thanks to @AmbassadorPowerfor leading efforts to right this wrong & standing on front lines to admit Israel into WEOG @unisgeneva.”